Instead of just considering median member of the population, you can consider extremes.
Some fraction of any population (be it Chinese or English) will want the most information dense writing possible. Some fraction will want more artistic language. Some fraction will want to be as illegible as possible.
The difference I think is that Old English grammar did not allow very information dense writing, and English in 2025 allows more density. Even today though it seems obvious more density is possible, a lot of articles, pronouns etc seem optional to me. Changing rules of grammar is a slow process that requires buy-in from many people.
Chinese grammar on the other hand allows higher density. Even if everyone today doesn’t make use of it, a subset of the population that needs it can use it.
Instead of just considering median member of the population, you can consider extremes.
Some fraction of any population (be it Chinese or English) will want the most information dense writing possible. Some fraction will want more artistic language. Some fraction will want to be as illegible as possible.
The difference I think is that Old English grammar did not allow very information dense writing, and English in 2025 allows more density. Even today though it seems obvious more density is possible, a lot of articles, pronouns etc seem optional to me. Changing rules of grammar is a slow process that requires buy-in from many people.
Chinese grammar on the other hand allows higher density. Even if everyone today doesn’t make use of it, a subset of the population that needs it can use it.